A good CMS can make content updating and editing easy, but picking the right one remains the challenge. Here’s how to choose between HubSpot CMS and Wix.
Note: This article has been updated to reflect HubSpot's 2024 release of Content Hub.
Choosing the right Content Management System (CMS) can significantly impact your website’s performance, security, ranking on search engines, and overall effectiveness. A CMS serves as the backend infrastructure that allows you to create, edit, and organize content on your website.
Simply put, a good CMS will make creating new pages and updating your current ones without the help of a developer easy.
While a CMS can make your life as a marketer a whole lot easier, picking the right one for your business to promote your products or services remains a challenge.
In this post, we’ll compare two leading CMS solutions: Wix and HubSpot CMS. We’ll cover their suitability for different businesses, pricing structures, user-friendliness, customization capabilities, features, and more.
Our goal is to help you make an informed decision and avoid making a costly mistake.
Let’s get started with a brief introduction to both platforms.
Here's what's covered in this article - just click to jump to the section you're most interested in:
- Overview of HubSpot CMS
- Overview of Wix
- Comparing Business Fit - HubSpot vs. Wix
- Comparing Pricing Models - HubSpot vs. Wix
- Comparing Ease of Use and Customization - HubSpot vs. Wix
- Comparing Business Integration and Marketing Features - HubSpot vs. Wix
- What's the Best Choice for You?
Overview of HubSpot CMS
HubSpot CMS is a powerful CMS tailored for small to medium-sized businesses. It facilitates efficient website creation, management, and optimization. With an intuitive interface and powerful editing tools, users can seamlessly control their website content, landing pages, and blog posts, ensuring responsiveness across various devices.
HubSpot CMS is built on HubSpot’s free CRM, which allows you to do sophisticated personalization and puts all of your website analytics in the same place as your email marketing, social media, and sales analytics for reporting and attribution. This is a game-changer for improving your overall customer experience and the way in which you connect with your potential customers.
What do users think of HubSpot CMS? Click here to see real users reveal the true pros and cons.
Understanding HubSpot CMS and Content Hub
As of April 2023, HubSpot replaced its CMS Hub with a new offering called Content Hub. This new Hub combines the power of the HubSpot CMS with additional tools and features to help teams capture leads and deliver personalized content experiences through the entire customer journey.
This article is primarily focused on comparing HubSpot's CMS offering with Wix's CMS.
Overview of Wix
Wix offers a cloud-based website development platform designed for solopreneurs and small businesses. Wix prioritizes user experiences and provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface for creating professional-looking websites without coding knowledge.
With Wix, the website creation process is streamlined and easy. You start with one of their many templates, then customize it to make it your own. Add additional functionality through the App Marketplace and you’re ready to publish.
Takeaway: HubSpot’s CMS seamlessly integrates with the rest of HubSpot’s all-in-one platform with options for sales, marketing, service, and more which is perfect for businesses looking to standardize on one system.
Wix, while offering some additional tools for email marketing (for example, email templates), e-commerce, blogging, and more, will likely require additional external tools to achieve the same functionality.
HubSpot vs. Wix – Comparing Business Fit
- Wix is ideal for artists, restaurants, and small local businesses seeking a quick and easy way to establish a presence online.
- Wix offers integrations with popular payment tools, third-party apps through the Wix App Market, and tools for online booking and scheduling.
- HubSpot is best for startups and small to medium-sized businesses prioritizing comprehensive marketing and sales solutions.
- HubSpot offers specialized plans for marketing, sales, and service hubs, along with a free CRM platform.
Instead of being a fit for everyone, many software providers specialize to fit the needs of a specific audience. HubSpot and Wix cater to two different crowds – so, let’s take a look at the strengths and core focus of each platform.
Wix:
Wix is a versatile platform suitable for a diverse array of businesses and individuals. It’s a great choice for artists, creatives, restaurants, cafes, local businesses, bloggers, and writers aiming to establish an online presence and sell products without a lot of technical skills.
Its user-friendly interface and customizable templates make it accessible to those seeking a straightforward way to showcase their work, promote their services, or share their content. Wix also offers seamless integrations with popular payment tools, enabling businesses to accept payments online. Through the Wix App Market, users can access a variety of third-party apps that enhance their website functionality, from social media integrations to marketing automation tools. This is so helpful for adding certain functionality to your website without having to build it from scratch.
Additionally, Wix provides convenient tools for online booking and scheduling, empowering service-based businesses to manage appointments and reservations directly from their website.
Note that this ease of use can come at the cost of some control and customizability. That’s perfect for the non-technical user but can make for a bad fit for larger businesses or those with unique needs.
HubSpot:
HubSpot CMS caters to a wide range of businesses, including startups and small to medium-sized businesses. It’s a great fit for e-commerce businesses and B2B companies alike. It’s best for those with a little technical knowledge and looking to align marketing and sales teams to drive growth and enhance customer engagement.
With its wide range of features and flexible capabilities, HubSpot is suitable for businesses of all sizes and industries except for those who are very small.
HubSpot offers specialized plans for additional hubs in marketing, sales, service, and more. This allows businesses to choose the features that align with their specific goals, such as lead generation, customer acquisition, or client retention.
Additionally, HubSpot offers a free CRM platform, empowering businesses to manage customer relationships effectively without additional costs. With features such as contact management, email tracking, and pipeline management, the HubSpot CRM streamlines operations and facilitates growth for businesses across various sectors.
Takeaway: Both of these platforms absolutely deliver on essentials for the core functionality of a CMS. Wix makes it incredibly easy to stand up a website in minutes and is perfect for small businesses with no technical expertise. HubSpot is more sophisticated but allows you to integrate your website with all of your sales and marketing data, efforts, reports, etc. This makes it an ideal fit for slightly bigger companies with more technical expertise.
HubSpot vs. Wix – Comparing Pricing Models
- Both platforms offer various pricing plans, including a free version for individuals and beginners, with options for monthly and yearly subscriptions.
- Wix’s premium plans provide expanded storage, bandwidth, and domain registration services.
- HubSpot provides a free CRM platform as part of its offerings and specialized plans including additional hubs for marketing, sales, service, and more.
Wix:
Wix presents a range of pricing plans. It offers a free version ideal for individuals and beginners looking to explore website creation. For those requiring additional features and capabilities, Wix provides options for monthly and yearly subscriptions. Their premium plans offer expanded storage, increased bandwidth, and domain registration services, enabling users to scale their websites effectively and meet growing demands.
See Wix’s most up-to-date pricing here.
HubSpot:
HubSpot also has a tiered pricing approach designed to accommodate diverse business requirements.
As part of all its offerings, HubSpot provides a free CRM platform, empowering businesses to manage customer relationships seamlessly without incurring additional costs. This inclusive approach ensures that businesses of all sizes and budgets can access HubSpot’s powerful tools and resources to drive growth and success.
The tiers vary in included features, number of seats, level of customer support, and more.
Note: In addition to its CMS, HubSpot offers specialized plans for business functions like marketing, sales, service operations, and more.
See HubSpot’s most up-to-date pricing here.
HubSpot vs. Wix – Comparing Ease of Use and Customization
- Both platforms prioritize ease of use with user-friendly drag-and-drop editors and many templates to choose from.
- Both offer App Marketplaces for additional functionalities and customizations.
- HubSpot prioritizes integration capabilities, supporting native payments, e-commerce platforms, and a library of certified integrations.
Both of these platforms take ease of use seriously and are well-suited for the non-technical user. In fact, prioritizing the easy-to-use interface of both platforms is a big part of their popularity.
Let’s take a closer look at the ease of use and how each can be customized.
Wix:
Wix stands out for its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, which allows users to easily design and customize their websites without any coding knowledge. With over 800 templates to choose from, users can find a design that suits their needs and preferences, enabling them to create visually appealing websites quickly.
Additionally, Wix offers a vast App Market that provides access to a wide range of third-party applications and functionalities. From e-commerce tools to marketing plugins, users can enhance their websites with additional features to meet their specific requirements and goals.
While users have a lot of control over the colors and images, Wix does lack some customizability. This is great for individuals or companies without technical knowledge but can feel limiting to those wanting more control over their website’s look.
HubSpot:
HubSpot prioritizes integration capabilities to provide users with a seamless and flexible experience with its additional product hubs in marketing, sales, commerce, operations, and service.
You can build an entirely customizable website from scratch on HubSpot or you can use templates and themes to get up and running quickly. Users can personalize their websites to reflect their brand identity and improve their visibility online. With a library of certified integrations, HubSpot ensures that users can easily connect with other tools and services to enhance their website functionality and performance.
Takeaway: While Wix excels in user-friendly website design and a vast selection of templates and apps, HubSpot stands out for its robust integration capabilities with the rest of the HubSpot platform.
HubSpot vs. Wix – Comparing Business Integration and Marketing Features
- Wix is suitable for simple website creation but may lack robust CRM and marketing integration compared to HubSpot.
- HubSpot stands out with its seamless integration with various tools, supporting personalized content, email marketing, and automated workflows.
Wix:
Wix, while offering intuitive website creation capabilities, may fall short in terms of robust CRM and marketing integration compared to HubSpot. While it provides basic functionalities for creating and managing websites, Wix’s integration capabilities for customer relationship management and marketing automation may be limited, especially for businesses requiring advanced features.
Another thing to note is while Wix is excellent at helping you optimize your content on-page by adding meta descriptions, headings, and custom URLs, a big disadvantage is not being able to optimize for off-page technical SEO. It will also require external tools to integrate with your marketing, sales, and service tools like HubSpot does.
HubSpot:
HubSpot CMS excels in its seamless integration with a wide array of content creation tools, making it a standout choice for businesses seeking comprehensive content marketing solutions.
With HubSpot, users can seamlessly integrate personalized content, implement email marketing campaigns, and automate various marketing processes. The platform’s robust integration capabilities ensure that businesses can effectively manage customer relationships, optimize marketing strategies, and drive engagement across multiple channels.
Overall, HubSpot CMS offers a more comprehensive suite of features and functionalities for businesses looking to enhance their marketing efforts and streamline their operations.
What’s the Best Choice for You?
Of course, the decision between HubSpot and Wix for your website hinges on various factors including your business’s specific needs, budget, and long-term goals. Both platforms offer distinct advantages and cater to different audiences.
Which is right for you?
Wix excels in simplicity and accessibility, making it an ideal choice for individuals, small businesses, and entrepreneurs seeking a user-friendly interface and straightforward website creation process. With its drag-and-drop editor, vast template library, and extensive App Market, Wix empowers users to quickly establish an online presence without the need for coding skills.
HubSpot CMS offers an all-in-one solution for businesses prioritizing integrated marketing, sales, and service operations. Its seamless integration with the HubSpot platform enables businesses to centralize their real-time data, streamline their processes, and drive growth through personalized marketing campaigns, robust CRM functionality, and automation capabilities.
With a perfect blend of power for developers and simplicity for marketers, HubSpot CMS enables your business to create personalized website experiences effortlessly.
What makes HubSpot CMS so special is its power combo with HubSpot CRM. Especially for those who are already using other HubSpot Hubs as part of their MarTech stack, HubSpot is a clear choice.
If you have any questions or would like to chat more about HubSpot CMS is right for you, book some time to chat with a HubSpot partner agency.
